How I Organise My Make-Up Desk

In case you hadn’t already guessed, I’m pretty fastidious when it comes to the storage of my make-up. Each and every Sunday my brushes are washed, my palettes wiped clean and my desk cleared up for the week ahead. Writing about beauty has added to my compulsion to organise: I have a testing rotation system in place and areas for products that need to be put through their paces, as well as the tried-and-tested make-up stash I use on a day-to-day basis. Pile on the fact that I often moonlight as a make-up artist, and you’ve got yourself a make-up desk that I can navigate blindfolded, despite it being this crammed:

I am well aware that this is excessive, but organised it is, so if you’d like to get your make-up in order, here are some of my top storage tips…

CANDLE JARS // Whenever I finish a fancy candle, I scrape out the remaining wax and store brushes in the jar. Not only is this a savvy upcycle, but it also looks rather pleasing. I separate my brushes into categories (blush, fan, concealer etc.), but this would work on as small or grand a scale as you’d like.

DIRTY BRUSH JAR // I’ve found having a couple of empty jars in which to store used brushes/blunt pencils/anything in need of attention the best way to keep things clean and neat. I religiously clean brushes with each use (click here for a guide on how to).

MUJI STORAGE DRAWERS // Or, in fact, any drawers shallow enough to allow make-up to be laid flat (so that it isn’t rattled around in a drawer and potentially broken – nothing is more fiddly and irritating than trying to clean up the mess of a broken cake of bronzer that’s spilled everywhere). Again, I categorise mine into liquid eyeliners, shadow pencils, under eye concealer etc. Scroll down for pictures of some of the contents of my drawers (and if you’d like a breakdown of the contents let me know for future posts).

COTTON BUDS // Okay, this isn’t really an organisation point, but if you don’t have these on your make-up desk, get some. They blend, wipe smears, exfoliate lips and do a multitude of other useful things on the make-up front.